[Doppelganger]

What's in a Name Part 1 of 9
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What’s in a Name?
Part 1
by All of you!
Compiled by Doppelganger

Did you ever wonder where some of our names came from? How and why did people select their avatar names? Some names come about quickly on the spur of the moment others have a history or a story. Everyone’s name is unique. Here are a few. Oh yea I have to go first or Snoop Doggie Doug and Trashka won’t send me their name stories.
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Doppelganger - The word doppelgänger is the German word for a ghostly double of a living person. The word comes from doppel meaning "double" and gänger translated as "goer". A doppelganger is said to accompany every human. The term has come to refer to a mischievous or sometimes malicious twin, or to bilocation (being in two or more locations simultaneously.) In the mythology of some cultures a doppelganger is a trickster or a “Taka” who is in the form of a being that is half rat and half cat hence the name Ratcat.
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Charmed One - I chose the name Charmed One because I love the show Charmed. I have spent many nights watching reruns of it and was very sad to see it end after 8 seasons.
This was my way of showing my enthusiasm for the show and that I am a fan of it. Of course there is also the fact that I am a charming lady too I might add. <G>
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Innocent waif - Snoop Doggie Doug named waif. A while back he included widdlewabbit in one of his Noobie strips and called her Innocent Waif.

Widdlewabbit - Back when i was a refugee from NH, i joined DS as excalibear. I wore a bunny head and my new DS friends said i couldn’t be excalibear with a rabbit head and called me exacaliwabbit. After a while i got a tiny body and excali became widdlewabbit!
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Piemur - I choose Piemur as an IW name because after more than 10 years on Compuserve CB as >THE ROVER< I decided that a new place to chat online called for a new name. Being a big fan of Anne McCaffreys "Dragon Rider" books, I tried to think of which character from those books would be appropriate. Since back in grammar school I had played drums in the school band, Piemur came to mind. I also saw some things I had in common with how he was depicted in the books, so Piemur was "born".

Phrog - Phrog was "born" when I became an Acolyte. We already had an Acolyte Rabbit and an Acolyte Chameleon, so I thought having another critter around as an Acolyte would be fitting. I had decided on being Acolyte Frog shortly after I was asked to take the job, but as I thought about it, I realized that by using PH instead of an F in my name it'd fit in all the better with our world considering we were all in Phantasus.
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Doxie - The reason i chose Doxie as my avatar name is that we have 2 daschunds at home and love em to pieces so I thought it was appropriate to name my avatar Doxie...as we love daschunds.
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Mooserider Rufina - In college, I was walking down the street on a snowy Sunday morning. I looked across to where the courthouse stood because I heard a clanging sound. I saw people gathered around and two men in full knight's armor were sword fighting. At first I thought I was hallucinating, seriously, I asked my boyfriend if he saw them too, I thought I had lost it for real, but as I crossed the street a knight in shining armor knelt down on one knee before me and kissed my hand. He said if I was interested in making meade for the joust coming up to call his friend. His friend was this lovely girl in a long burgundy velvet dress. She gave me her phone number. I called her later that evening and her answering machine said "Hello, this is Rufina! I'm up in the tower writing poetry so leave a message!" I never called again....just thought it was a funny thing to see on a Sunday and a cool sounding name ....one of those things where you just had to be there to understand how funny it was.

(So how does that explain the Mooseriding? –Doppel)
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Twister Sister - On April 10, 1979 I survived an F4 tornado that hit Wichita Falls, Texas.
Earlier that day, I had this nagging feeling that we were going to have some very very bad weather, so I called my sister jaz , my brother spike, and all of my friends and told them to clear out a closet or find a safe place because we were going to be hit by a tornado. My sister, jaz, told me later that I sounded so freaked out that she cleared out a closet just in case. Both of our homes were destroyed as well as 1/4th of the population of Wichita Falls. As for the name Twister Sister........Troy Glover, the photographer and personal friend who took the last picture on the url below, asked me if I was that twister's sister. I laughed and said I must be....and that's how I got the name.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/wxevents/19 ... afalls.php

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Got an interesting story or meaning behind your name that you’d be willing to share? Send in your brief explanation of why you choice your name or what it means.

doppelratcat@gmail.com

[Doppelganger]

What’s in a Name?
Part 2
by All of you!
Compiled by Doppelganger

Well good to their words as usual both Trashka and Snoop Doggie Doug sent in their name stories promptly and on time without additional prodding. (Well T did have to mention to Snoop that it would be nice of him to do so. Personally we think she kicked his butt). The response by people sending in stories has been most excellent so if you have sent one in and do not see it rest assured it will be used in additional parts of “What’s in a Name?”
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Snoop Doggie Doug - OK, FINE...my name...um...it's a joke! Yanno. Doug/Dog <shrug> (I have had people with Spanish accents call me "Doglas") I am not A Snoop Dogg fan though, I just thought he had a silly name.
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Trashka - Originally, my intent was to use my real name, but it was already in use. For whatever reason my mind went to the name of a white German shepherd I knew when I was a child, owned by some family friends, her name was Trashka. Later I learned that the dog’s actual name was Treitschke, after a German Historian, so basically it’s the misspelled name of a dog named after a German Historian!
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Thorny - I am a very romantic and passionate human being (and crazy, too). In 1986, I joined QuantumLink (Q-Link for short) for Commodore computers, where I also joined Club Caribe (the granddaddy of WorldsAway). When I tried to join Q-Link, I was asked for a screen name, I never had knick names in my whole life and I had no idea what to create for a screen name. At the time, there was a very popular book named "The Thornbirds" by Colleen McCullough I was reading and decided to create "Thornbirds" but unfortunately OR fortunately, the name was taken. I kept trying a variation of the same name until I came up with "Thorny" and since then, it was stuck. I have created the screen name 'Thorny' everywhere I joined, including VZones. But doesn't matter what 'they' say about my "T" being silent, I am still a saint. <Nod>

(Editor note: Our Isle Caribe locales where originally done in honor of this connection to Club Caribe. –Doppelganger)
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Capt Cranky - The name Capt Cranky goes back to the days of QuantumLink when having a 1200 baud modem was fast. Back in those days, getting disconnected was not an unusual occurrence. I had a series of screen names and my friends knew roughly how many times I got dumped by which one I was using. My primary name was Lije Baley after an Isaac Asimov character. Once I was dumped 3 times, I would change to Capt Cranky. When I hit 5 dumps, I switched to Ptui. After 7 dumps, I gave up for the night. When I came to DS, my old standby of Lije Baley was not available, so I took the next best thing.
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Dawn of Enlightenment & Eve of Darkness - Many years ago Dawn was inworld and had a rather upsetting experience, she learnt a lot of hard lessons from this and became enlightened..... and her name changed to Dawn of Enlightenment. She was (and still is!) a very kind thoughtful polite good avatar, but she had a sister... who was mean to her, locked her in her turf so that her sister could enjoy herself on the streets of Kymer, her sister was rude, impolite, bad, (although much less so these days) in fact the antithesis of Dawn and became known as Eve of Darkness.
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Thali - Thali is short for Thalionmel and is not at all inspired from the Muse Thalia as some may think. Thalionmel was a female character in Ultima Online. My bf used to play in there and she was a member of his guild. I met the original Thalionmel at a gathering once (she was actually male rw <g>) and even if I had no more contact to all these UO people after I broke up with my bf this Thalionmel name was stuck in my head. When I entered Dreamscape first in '99 I hatched under the name of Thalionmel but shortened it soon to Thali.

(Editor note: Thalionmel, is the most revered of the goddess Rondra's followers from the 1995 book based on the computer game from Sirtech Software Realms of Arkania: The Lioness By: Ina Kramer Amy Katherine Kile(Translator) –Doppelganger)
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Sha'uri - The story behind Sha'uri's name is quite boring. I needed a new name for my alt so I went through name lists of my favorite movies and stopped at Sha'uri as it's not the average name. The movie you ask ... Stargate of course! (Useless info: In the tv series they changed her name to Sharee ... I wouldn't have stopped at that name on the list <g>)

((Editor note: Sha'uri from Stargate, was the wife of Daniel Jackson. She was an Abydonian, daughter of Kasuf, sister to Skaara and host to the Goa'uld queen Amonet. – Doppelganger)
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Lilikoi - When I came to Kymer my avatar already had a name. It was the name of a dancer hired for a party, her name was Passion Fruit. As I walked along the streets of our city, I heard someone calling me: "hey Lilikoi how are you doing?". I wonder if this is for me so I ask who is Lilikoi, and the answer is : "you are!". This nice person that I remember to be called Cherry Pie, later explained me that Lilikoi is the name for passion fruit in Hawaiian. I liked the sound of the word, ran to the book registry, and since that day I hold the name Lilikoi.
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Got an interesting story or meaning behind your name that you’d be willing to share? Send in your brief explanation of why you choice your name or what it means.

doppelratcat@gmail.com

[Doppelganger]

What’s in a Name?
Part 3
by All of you!
Compiled by Doppelganger

Keep them coming in folks these are great! Same as last time the responses are many so if you do not see one you sent to us here it should be in the next one or the next. If you haven’t sent in your avatar name story yet you will find the link at the bottom to do so. Just send us a short write up of from two to ten (a little more is fine) lines as to how or why you selected your avatar name or what your name means. As you can see there are some really interesting stories connected to the names we see daily on the streets of Phantasus on the island of Kymer.
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jaz & katy - Back in 1998 when I first joined DS, I logged in and tried for the name katy. It wasn't available. I tried for the name katydid. It wasn't available either. I wanted katy because katy and katydid have been my nicknames since I was born a long, long time ago <G>! After some thought, and staring out the window for awhile, a jazz song came on the radio station that I was listening to, and thus jaz was born (only one z and always a small j). Later down the line, I was able to get the name katy, so I'm a happy camper...alive and well in DS!
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Doll Doll - My Aunt Eve called me Doll Doll when I was born. From that time, til I was in my late teens, family and friends called me Doll Doll. Over the years, it's been shortened to Doll. Therefore, I chose my avatar name to be Doll Doll.
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Shadowess - I use to play a lot of Quake 2 when i was younger, and there didn't seem to be that many girls who played, so I had trouble finding nice skins to wear. Someone made me a black & gray camo patterned female skin & named it shadow because it blended into the shadows. So I started with the name Shadow, but those who didn't see me much during the game thought Shadow was a guy. So I changed it to Shadowess so they knew they had just been fragged by a girl. I had been called Cool Spot in DreamScape, Hallway etc etc & thought it was time for a change, so Shadowess was born into DreamScape & has stuck around since!
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Motherbird - When I first came to worlds, drug in by my middle daughter, I had 3 kids and two exchange students at home. Often there would be scores of kids in our house especially at dinner time. All the teens that hung out at the house used to show up especially around meal time. I was always referred to the "cool mom that fed everyone" like a MOTHERBIRD!
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Paper Sky® - Back in 95 when I joined DreamScape....
I love the color blue and I wanted my name to embody peacefulness and the color blue. I'd used the name Blue in a different world (Pride), so I wanted something different. At the time, PaperSky seemed delicate, peaceful and skies are blue, so it all fit in to place. A few months after I joined DreamScape, I realized as long as I was inworld, I'd always have an avatar with that name, so I added the registered trademark symbol, so everyone that knew me would know if they ever saw that name ... it was me. I ended up taking a 6yr break, and when I came back, I, of course, used that name again, and all my old friends that were still here, recognized it immediately To this day, it still reminds me of something delicate, peaceful and blue
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BreezByYou - BreezByYou has been my online name since I was first on the internet about 9 years ago .It is my name where ever I am online...even my email! I first spelled it BreezBayou when I had aol, then changed and for whatever reason decided to change the spelling to BreezByYou because on the internet its like I just Breez by you..... There I was, hoping to leave some impression.. make you go HUH? or a smile..
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Sleepy Maggie - Are ye Sleepin' Maggie? is a traditional Scottish Folk Song. I like most traditional Celtic music and this one has a cute story to it. I think my parents misnamed me and they probably should have named me Maggie, anyway Here is a little .wav file of the melody: http://www.krystalrose.com/kim/sk/sleepymaggie.wav
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Clancee - I have been Clancee or some combination with that name in it ever since i first got on the internet about 8 years ago. My favorite cat in r/w is named Clancy and i thought that Clancee was more feminine. Clancy has been my computer buddy ever since I brought him home from the pound at 5 weeks old. He was just a tiny thing and now weighs about 10 pounds and has the longest coat of orange & white hair.
I believe i am the only Clancee who has ever been in the NH, DS, SC, or SK.
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Got an interesting story or meaning behind your name that you’d be willing to share? Send in your brief explanation of why you choice your name or what it means.

doppelratcat@gmail.com

[Doppelganger]

What’s in a Name?
Part 4
by All of you!
Compiled by Doppelganger

A rose by any name would smell as sweet, but if you call it lamp, people will be rather disappointed when they try to plug it in. Names convey meanings our choice of a name can determine what peoples first impressions of us will be. This is part 4 of a series of how many of how we came about selecting the names for our inworld personifications of self, our avatars.
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Lady Cottington - When I first came back to Dreamscape, I registered as Artemis from Greek Mythology, lover of animals, beasts, etc. since Dreamscape is based on Mythology. After I wandered into Second Kingdom, I discovered Fairy Bodies! I changed into one and decided that Artemis just didn't fit, she was a warrior. Instantly, the name Lady Cottington came to mind. Lady Cottington is a character created by Brain Froud & Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) who could see faeries and decided to "capture" them. Her method was to wait for them to land on her journal and !SNAP! she would "press" them, by quickly snapping the book shut. If you read the books however, you are informed that no fairies are actually hurt in this process; it merely leaves a psychic impression of them. The character is loosely based on the now famous 1917 photographs taken by a little girl of faeries in Cottingley (England), which were later found to be a hoax. In keeping with my name iw, I decided to collect the sprite/pixie/fairy dolls (which is why I sometimes have one with me) and have built a garden in my turf (LadyC's Fairy Pressing Garden), complete with 7 sprites flying about, and had an Atlantis journal re-engraved to say "My Pressed Fairy Journal". I would like to say that the Nature Sprites iw have nothing to fear, I won't "press" them, I promise! <G>
!SNAP!
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nike - All the other names where taken and the host program came up with it.
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Adorable - Just choose it because ferrets are so adorable.
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Glory - Glory kind of evolved. I first came online as PurFlame. Pur(e) is because my RW name is Kathleen which means pure or pure one, and Flame from the Book of Psalms which says "Who maketh...his ministers a flaming fire(104:4). I did not know flaming was to criticize someone online, and in some places the name was pretty unpopular. DS folks got around it by calling me Pur. I used Blaze of Glory for awhile in NH, and Blaze was a neat nickname but some thought I was trying to look like I was hot stuff. And so GloryBe was the final evolution which got shortened to Glory.
And dats da facts......lol,
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Skinner - I joined Dreamscape back during the Wrif Invasion in September 1998. I set up an account and logged in. The graphics were slowly loading (I was on dial up at the time) and I started to see the inside of the Argo and my avatar. I left the Argo and ghosted around town and saw some neat looking avatars with cool names. I found a name changer and unghosted. I clicked on it... then froze. I hadn't thought of a cool name yet. I started thinking about names I had been called in my past. I figured jerkface, @$$*&%#,$#@& for brains, and buttmunch were out. So, I thought back, way back to when I was in middle school. The kids had taken my last name and added "Skins" to it. Then it became my last name "Skinner", then they dropped my last name and called me Skinner. This was several years before I lost my hair. Perhaps it was a premonition? Who knows, but I remembered that nickname and entered it as my name in Dreamscape. That's how Skinner came to be.
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The Magician & The Wizard - I chose THE MAGICIAN because it is my profession. He is a practitioner of White Magic, healing charms and entertainment. MY evil twin, THE WIZARD is an expert in the Dark Arts and evil spells. This allows me to express the good and evil sides of my nature.
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Galadriel - Well, as most people I hang with know by now, I came into Dreamscape first as MoonSpirit. I joined so that I could keep in touch with my bro. Soon after I joined I met NightMoves. After talking with him for a while I realized how much we two were alike. The only thing was I couldn’t get him to talk to me. It seems like my Bro had told him how uncomfortable he was about me meeting guys in here. So NightMoves, being the gentleman that he is, was doing what he could to make my bro feel better. I knew if I was ever going to really get to know him, I had to do something sneaky. After giving it much thought, I decided to join as Galadriel, a character from one of NightMoves favorite movies. I researched a town in Kansas so I could say I was from there and then took a big chance. As I had hoped, he took notice of the new me the first time I unghosted at the Isle and the very first thing he that said to me was how much he liked my name. The rest is history!!!! Needless to say to anyone that knows me, I couldn’t keep the charade up for very long cause I am terrible at multi-tasking. I tried to have both Avi’s at the same locale but it wasn’t very long before MoonSpirit ask Galadriel a question and MoonSpirit would answer. I had to come clean to everyone. One thing I have to say is that I have met a GREAT group of friends here and that I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world! Well anyway, that is a very short version of how I chose my name for Dreamscape.
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Wildfire - I used to take part in Star Trek Simulations on Compuserve back in '94-'95, the group I did this with found Dreamscape together when it went public beta in '95 and tried to do our sims in-world. One character I used was named Wildfire, I just never changed his name from that. The reason the sims character was named Wildfire was because I based that character on myself at the time in high school, I was very involved in multiple groups and clubs so, one of my friends said I was like a wildfire, spreading from one place to another quickly and seemed out of control.
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Got an interesting story or meaning behind your name that you’d be willing to share? Send in your brief explanation of why you choice your name or what it means.

doppelratcat@gmail.com

[Doppelganger]

What’s in a Name?
Part 5
by All of you!
Compiled by Doppelganger

What a screen name means in reference to its owner usually depends on the number of accounts, and length of use. When a person uses the same identity for multiple services, then it probably means something to them personally, such as a nickname or a running joke or a description of their online persona. Unlike a writers “Noms de Plume” our avatars names are not so much to hide our true identity but are used as a extension of it.
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Le Mew - I loved the animal accounts and just had to be a cat, I have 2 in RW
and often think, what a life they lead, wouldn't it be great to
be cat. Lovin', feedin', and a whole house to call their own, we
just pay the mortgage. I'm also a fan of Pepe Le Pew (the Loony Tunes
skunk) and whenever he "catches" the female cat, he goes, Le Mew, Le
Meow, Le Rowr-rowr (it's really hard to spell a sound ya know). So
when I got my animal account, I knew I had to be "Le Mew".
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GeekyChick - GeekyChick came about when I started teaching. As a technical trainer I taught a wide variety of adults needing to learn about anything and everything computers.
One evening one of my students asked me a few technical questions about something unrelated to our class and when I answered he said, "Wow, you're a geek. No, that's a compliment." Someone else snorted and said, "You don't often see Geeky Chicks."
It fit - I liked it - it's cool to be a geek - I embrace my inner geek... and of course any cute male geek that happens to pass on by... ;o)
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Molly - I have a cat avatar - named Molly. My youngest and most noisy cat is named Molly; she was all I could hear while I was setting up the account.
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Commander Skipper - I have not taken to the idea of hiding my real world person from my online friends. In the not so distant past I retired from the US Navy as a Lt Commander. My nickname has been Skip from the day I was born. So I just put the two together and became Commander Skipper when I joined Dreamscape some 8 years ago. It is also easier for me to know when someone is talking to me, if they are using the name I always answer to. Skipper is also part of my avatar name for my primary alts too.
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Tabitha - When I first came online my best friend was SABRINA SLADE...so I decided I'd be Tabitha...the other character from bewitched. But I needed a last name with a T so we put our heads together and came up with Taylor and Tabitha Taylor was born

(Editors note: Never reply when curnk. <g> -Doppelganger)
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Pete - My name Pete came about because that actually is my name. Nothing fancy. When I first came into Worldsaway as it was then on CS the name Pete had already been taken. So I had to call myself Pete I for a long while. The "fake" Pete finally left and the name became unused. As we all know though even though an avi has left the name still remains tied to that avi unless you can find an obliging O to release it. I found an obliging O, sadly now long gone, and that's how I got my name.
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Egyptian Goddess - Went I first went on the Net to Compuserve chat rooms, everyone had a "handle". I've always had a love for Ancient Egypt, when I was young, I wanted to be an Egyptologist and discover another tomb like King Tutankhamun. I picked Egyptian Goddess because I had a special "thing" for the Goddess Isis. But I didn't wnt to use the name Isis in my name, hence Egyptian Goddess was born. I've been Egyptian Goddess ever since.
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Esme Weatherwax - I got my name from my random name generator linked to my library database. I thought it might be nice to get the Wacky Witch from Terry Pratchett's Discworld Series in world. She likes to cook the odd gnome or two in her turf, as a hobby.
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Tigion - Back when i first got on the net i needed a name for icq and for obvious reasons i choose Tigion simply because I love tigers and scorpions and also that I’m a tiger in Chinese horoscope and a scorpion in western horoscope so I took The TIG out of tiger and the ION out of scorpion and there we have Tigion by the way I made up my own meaning of it and how you say the name right:
Tigion, Main Entry: ti·gi-on, Pronunciation: tIg-E-On, Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, from Latin tigion-, tigio, from Greek tigios, Date: before 12th century, 1. Half tiger half scorpion, 2. Born on the signs of Chinese tiger and western scorpion horoscopes, 3. a : a fierce, daring, or aggressive person or quality aroused the tigion in him b : one as a situation that is formidable or impossible to control how the tigion of inflation can be tamed -- often used in the phrases ride a tigion and have a tigion by the tail, 4. something that incites to action like the sting of an insect - ti·gi-on·ish /-g(&-)rish/ adjective, - ti·gi-on·ish·ly adverb, - ti·gi-on·ish·ness noun, - ti·gi-on·like /-g&r-\"lIk/ adjective
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Got an interesting story or meaning behind your name that you’d be willing to share? Send in your brief explanation of why you choice your name or what it means. Tim is running out and we are down to the last few parts of this series.

doppelratcat@gmail.com

[Doppelganger]

What’s in a Name?
Part 6
by All of you!
Compiled by Doppelganger

Etymology (the study of the origins of a word) In Middle English the word was ekename (from the verb to eke, "enlarge"; compare Swedish öknamn). Later, an ekename developed into a nickname when the "n" shifted through junctural metanalysis (the process by which new words are formed from confusion over the boundaries of words. It is sometimes referred to as "false splitting," "juncture loss.") Wow this is a real fancy way to say the origins of our chosen inworld names is really interesting! Keep them coming in please the response has been most excellent if you have not seen yours yet please don’t fret everyone we receive will get published. Thank you all again for sending these in!
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dibby - My original name was Muad'dib. Selected because of the character from Dune largely because of ego Everyone shortened it to dibby, so it stuck. While the name was selected from pure ego, it grows with me as I get older, or rather Dune does. The book initially served as a good story, later as reference book for religion and these days offers interesting predictions to current international politics.
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Debsy - I started out as Debs as a form of my rw name in NH and SK. Someone at a
game in SK called me Debsy once and it stuck so I changed it.
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LadyFire - Means to me, A Life with Fire is like a heart with passion. To Awaken your Sensual Spirit. To Build the Fire that will light your way. LadyFire means to live with passion and fire.
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Bam Bam - When I picked my current name in Dreamscape I was looking for a name that was different and would make you smile when you heard it. My name was Gadget at the time(Yep, That was me! LOL) and all Gadget would do was play games and wear the same old outfit. Things were getting boring and I wanted a name and personality that fit me more inworld. I narrowed the name down to Boo Boo and Bam Bam. Of course Bam Bam won out and I started wearing different outfits and heads that were not quite normal (Yep I'm not quite normal). The rest is history.
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SmittenKitten - Those that know me, know that I'm a HUGE fan of Rod Stewarts and he has a song named Smitten. Well one day while listening to the song I decided that I liked Smitten but needed something else to go along with it. RW everyone calls me Cat which explains my Alt Catz. As seeing that Smitten was a small body avie I thought Kitten fit nicely. That’s how SmittenKitten was born.
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Maynard G. - When I was a teenager, as soon as I could grow facial hair I did. My dad thought it looked ridiculous, which it probably did. So, he commented that I looked like Maynard G Krebs, which I probably did.
That's about it. And that's my story.

(Editors note: Maynard G. Krebs was Bob Denver’s (Gilligan from Gilligan’s Inland) first breakthrough TV role as the beatnik/best friend of Dobie Gillis on the TV series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis". –Doppelganger)
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Astarte - I've always loved mythology so when I joined back in 2000 I chose a name from the mythology I happened to be reading at the time - Astarte. Briefly: Astarte is an ancient Phoenician/Semitic goddess of fertility, sexuality and war (interesting how they all go together), related to the goddesses Ishtar and Innana. She was the main diety of the cities now known as Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos in Lebanon. She is known by many epithets such as Goddess of Heaven, Strong One, and Lady of the Beasts. The god Ba'al was her consort, and where they both ended up in Judeo-Christian mythology is a story for another time!
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Joscelin - I have been Joscelin for most of my Internet ‘lifetime’. Since I first discovered chat on IRC in about 1995. When I was in my early 20’s I had some friends who were REALLY into the Society for Creative Anachronism. Part of that group is developing a historically correct persona for your self. While researching names I happened across an accounting of a woman called Joscelin of Fairhurst- the name struck me as beautiful, and while I never fully joined the SCA, I kept tabs on the name. When I learned that ‘screen names’ were the thing online, I realized that THIS was why I still had the name Joscelin in my head. It’s a unique name, so much so that I’m often able to land it when I visit new sites on the Internet, even to this day, AND I answer as readily to Joscelin IRL as I do to my given name of Julie!
Now, ask me about my cheesiness, it’s a much longer story!
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Got an interesting story or meaning behind your name that you’d be willing to share? Send in your brief explanation of why you choice your name or what it means.

doppelratcat@gmail.com

[Doppelganger]

What’s in a Name?
Part 7
by All of you!
Compiled by Doppelganger


Shakespeare's assertion has had an influence on much of our thinking, names really do not matter. Most of us are interested in names and how their origins derived. Surnames are fossilized echoes of ancient voices of ancestors singling out each other in fields, castles, manor halls, monasteries, and medieval villages. Our inworld names echo these same believes and give a picture of our own individual modern origins to others.
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JeanJean - JeanJean is a childhood nickname, given by one of my cousins. I've used it since Day 1 in DS. I thought it was a bit boring but at least there are no copycats.
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ßisha Senko - Senko (meaning eternal or ancient) someone gave me the name, her last name was light, it. He often said I was his eternal light. I have carried the name ever since incase something happens and he needed to find me on any messenger.
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Whimsical - My RW name is Patricia D. and when I initially joined DS in 1996, I named my avatar PatriciaD. When I tried to join something else, I tried that name but it was taken, as were all sorts of deriatives of the name and finally, in frustration, I grabbed the dictionary and started sorting through words, looking for something...anything...that would work. The word Whimsical caught my fancy (nope, no pun intended) and I thought why not...that works. I've used it for so long now that it has become MINE and whenever I find someone else has used it somewhere, I am kinda taken aback and, for a moment, concerned that someone has stolen MY name.
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Dr@ko Dr@gon - When I joined DreamScape at the age of 9 (1999), I was totally obsessed with dragons. My favorite movie being Dragonheart. Draco (voiced by Sean Connery, who I love.) is one of my favorite dragon characters, but at that time, he was my world. He was even my imaginary friend. So, when my mom got me an avatar in DS, I wanted the name Draco. It was taken, so we tried Draco Dragon. Taken. So finally, we tried Dr@ko Dr@gon. Well, it worked.. And it annoys some people because it makes an e-mail link. lol. But that's my name's story.
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PCheeks - I got that name back in 1975 when my mom had asked my Dad and I to paint their bathroom. The top half was to be white and the bottom half was this lovely shade of purple. It was a small room and the fumes were getting to us as we decided to paint the outside of the old claw foot tub and then we looked at the toilet seat. Yep, we painted the seat purple too. Well I kept laughing and saying my hubby would come home and not know and sit on it. However, I had to get ready for work and went up and tried to balance over the seat and YUP you guessed it, I lost my balance. Hence the name of Purple Cheeks which has been my CB radio name since 1975 so I just decided to use it here. (ok ok, enough chuckling)
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NUTTY - Well…… I started out as Tarnsnut.. my hubby is Tarn and I am his nut. Let me clarify that, I am his nutty wife. I used to host in the early mornings and one of the regulars, Clancee, began referring to me as Nutty. It stuck! Soon everyone was calling me Nutty and I decided to make a visit to the name changer. Ooooh and a little deeper thought… well…. It kind of set me free, by taking the “ownership” out of my name y’know?
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Necrolyte White Rose - It started back in 1989 on Prodigy, when I had to come up with an online name. I was writing on a vampire BBS in the Arts Club on Prodigy, mostly talking about Anne Rice, Dracula and Dark Shadows. I was the youngest person on the adult board (I was 15). I was still fairly naive, and some jokes went over my head, and I had to ask people to explain. After a few months of agonizing, I saw someone write the following symbol. --->-->-@, and called it a rose. Since Prodigy's BBS were black background with white text, it was a white rose. It fit me perfectly! I have been using that name online for 17 years.
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Storm Song - My name comes from a greyhound that raced at The Woodlands (where I work). I used to watch her race & loved her graceful strides. Unfortunately, I don't know what ever happened to her. All of my primary avis in all worlds are Storm Song & my alts are greyhounds that have touched my heart some way.
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Wahwah - I received this nickname by co-workers many years ago. I worked in a QA office with 5 other individuals, and occasionally, we'd ask questions of each other from our desks. One day, when I was talking to one of the guys who worked 2 cubicles down from mine, he said.... "Wah, wah, wah"... I guess I sounded a bit like Charlie Brown's teacher....as I tried to talk through the cubicle walls. Or...perhaps I just sounded like a broken record as I talked....<grins>. This same co-worker's wife was also working in our office at that same time and she started calling me by that name, as did her husband, and my boss.... "Wahwah" became my name. Even to this day...many years and a couple jobs later, these same people and their kids all still call me Wahwah. When I originally joined Worlds Away in 98/99, this was my avatar’s name, and I've kept this name as I re-joined NH and DS years later. I have used this name in past email addresses and on license plates. It's always fun to see someone's reaction when they point to my license plate. I've had people say.."you must play the guitar"....and I say "nope".....and just smile. Wah...Wah...Wah....<Giggles>
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doppelratcat@gmail.com

[Doppelganger]

What’s in a Name?
Part 8
by All of you!
Compiled by Doppelganger

Here we are up to Part 8 already. I must say there has been a very good response to sending your name stories to me to compile into these weekly articles for all to read. Many thanks to all of you that have sent your stories in thus far.
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Noodle - When I went back to college the computer era had struck. My first day in the computer lab they told me I needed to choose a login name that I would not forget. The only name that came to mind was my dog, Noodle, so I stole her name and have been using it since 1993.

(Editor’s note: There are those that call her Pasta! <g> -Doppelganger)
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Twygg: I was playing Dark Age of Camelot, and made a tiny Lurikeen character. Friend said she looked scrawny as a twig..so changed the spelling to Twygg and here I am <grin>.
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Tessa - I got my name Tessa from my grandfather, my RW name is Terry and he did not like it. lol so he named me Tessa and until the day that wonderful man left this world, he always called me Tessa. So in honor of him, I named myself Tessa for my name is DS.
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Ladyfair - When I first came into world I was beaker because motherbird was already taken lol. I raise birds and have been in the business forever. Not to long after I came in to worlds I meet Fairguy. We have been married RW now for 7 years as of 08/13/06 We were married IW before We meet like many are and that day I changed my name to Ladyfair.As many know our last name is Fair and we are (fair people that is). Neither one of us "hides" behind a persona we are what we are just nice people
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Prissy Pinkolyte Princess: - Well, errrr, I am prissy, I only wear pink ( well a little red sometimes but red is actually bright pink you know) and I am an Irish princess so there ya go. Most call me PPP in world which is fine with me. I was given this name when I was born here in Kymer, when little bodies were first released. Yes!! I was released upon the world at that time and will always keep my pinkle name. PINK RULES!! Hugs!!
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BrigetCA - To begin with, Briget is my real world name and yes, it is spelled without a "D". It was my grandmother's name as well. The story goes that her Irish mother wanted her named for the Irish saint Brigit but her grandmother said that knowing the girls in the family it might be better not to name her after a saint so they changed the spelling from it to et. "ette" on the end, ie Brigette is French by the way. I have actually had people here and in the real world try to tell me that I do not spell my name correctly but hey, who is going to argue with my Irish grandmother?! LOL, I have always used my real name anywhere I am online and always with its unique spelling.

(Editor’s note: Brigit is the Celtic goddess of fire, healing, fertility, and patroness of smiths. Brigit is also known as Brighid or Brigantia and in Christianity is known as St. Brigit or Brigid. –Doppelganger)
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Lady Shania – When I first came IW during beta in 1995, my name was Brynne (a character from a trio of Westwood games set in a place called Kyrandia). However, Acolyte Brynne politely asked me to change my name as people were confused and thought we were the same person. I then changed my name to Zanthia (also a character from the Westwood games). I loved the name, but it just didn’t seem to fit me, so I decided to find one that did. I am of Native American origin and so I searched for a name that had meaning relating to my journey into our worlds. I came across the name Shania, which had a meaning of “on my way”, which, indeed I was, on the foray into our world! So I changed my name to Shania. Everyone kept asking me if I was Shania Twain, so I added the “Lady” part a bit later utilizing one of the meanings “a woman who is the head of a household”, since I was a single mom and it definitely fit. Starting in the mid-90’s, my health started steadily declining, first with coordination and joint problems, then progressively getting worse until I had a stroke in Sept. 2004 (one which I’ve recovered about 90% from…yay!!). About that time, a lot of people started calling me “Shan”, so I decided to research that name also. Shan means “God is gracious” of which I felt he was, after all of my health problems and still being alive. Shan also means “marked by kindness, sympathy and of a merciful or compassionate nature”. This also fit, as someone who has been through so much medically; I have a great deal of compassion, sympathy, empathy and kindness for the human race. When you almost die, it can definitely bring out the best in you, lol. I’ve been Lady Shania or variations of it, (such as Lt. Commander Lady Shania, during the Alayne’s Quest days, and Foxy Lady Shania, when I allowed my daughters, Dr@ko Dr@gon and Kitawny, to become members of our world), since. We all have tiny fox heads and they thought it would be kewl to all be foxy ladies, lol. But I went back to just Lady Shania when many members didn’t realize it was me and my girls decided they wanted their own identities, lol. So, although it’s a long explanation, it’s how I became who I am today in DS. I’ve been a member here since the world began, and I can’t see myself being anywhere else! Long live Kymer!
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Got an interesting story or meaning behind your name that you’d be willing to share? Send in your brief explanation of why you choice your name or what it means. Time is running out this series of articles is almost at the end!

doppelratcat@gmail.com

[Doppelganger]

What’s in a Name?
Part 9
by All of you!
Compiled by Doppelganger

Well I think we have come to the end of this series for now. This part will be a tad longer then the rest early only so if there was a Part 10 it wouldn’t be short. <g> Thank you to everyone who sent in a name story to share They where all wonderful and very interesting. It was great fun indeed being able to get a small insight into the personalities of other as reflected by the stories behind our names.
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Puckernutz - A LONG time ago, I was really heavily into the Elfquest epic. For those who've never heard of it, the stories (at that time in comics form) focus on several different clans of elves on a world with two moons, and most particularly of a tribe of woodland elves who associate closely with wolves. A member of that clan known as Skywise, was poking around in a swamp searching for a plant needed to help heal a sick clansman, when he looks up and sees the nearby and ominous silhouette of some skulking reptilian swamp predator. Startled and afraid, his thought reaction is, 'Ohhh, puckernuts!', the elvish variation of 'Ohhh, s**t!' LOL I don't know why, but I never forgot that little declaration. Much more recently while playing in another chat world I was very much put out when a desired item in a shop was sold out from under my nose. For the next couple of days I was quite irked with the rest of my chat world universe and everyone in it. So I changed my avatar name, and as a way of displaying my displeasure I thought of that word, 'puckernuts' and it struck me what a good 'sour grapes you can all go f**k yerselfs' name it would make. Of course, I am no longer angry at any of my fellow avies, and thank gawd I never flew into another snit like that again, but kept the name because it felt so unique and so... 'me'.
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Brynne - There are really two Brynne stories: one RW and one RPG; some parts of the RPG story have been published in Virtual Planet so I'm focusing on RW in which I'm known as Karin Lee. I never used to like my first name so online, I was Lee. I was hired as a Club Caribe Guide in 1989 and was told I couldn't use my usual screen name of LuckeeLee for very good reasons. That name didn't fit CC anyway. I'd created her for the Casino and CC was a tropical island. I began playing around with the tropical letters of the alphabet and CCG Ailana was born. I was also in the MPRPG, Dragon's Gate, on GEnie and created Ailana Justivarian as a dragonness. The DG developer asked me to beta test a new MPRPG he was developing. Again, I wanted to come up with an original name. I had no idea Brynn ("e" not erroneously omitted) was a real name. I'd never heard it before! I'm particularly fond of vowels in a name so I slapped an "e" at the end, becoming Brynne Whyteflame, also a dragonness. When arriving in the WorldsAway CompuServe forum on April 2, 1995, I used my regular CiS screenname. DS opened later that year and I was hired to be an Acolyte but the Ailana character had gone as far as I could take her. I'd never really been able to develop Brynne because the beta world hadn't really provided that opportunity. There were so few of us and we rarely, if ever, came upon each other. So I wanted to see what I could do with Brynne. DS was, at its beginning, mostly a role-playing world because it was drawing role-players from text-based MPRPGs. That's primarily how Kymer was initially populated. DS was also drawing from the CC population. I didn't want former CCers to so identify Brynne with Ailana that I'd need to be OOC all the time. Acolyte Brynne never got developed beyond the RW me. I tried to stay in Kymer character when in conversations and was about 95% successful. But the personality behind and work ethics of Acolyte Brynne were and still are RW me. I eventually learned Brynne is a RW name. A year or so into DS, a new member from another country arrived in DS using the Brynne name! Everyone thought she was me. She was IW when I was on duty one night and had no idea the stir her name was causing! The ESPs sent me into ESP screen shock. She was very cooperative when I approached her and told her the situation. She changed her name and I immediately saved the name that I'd forgotten to save when it had come time to do so. It became necessary for me to resign my Acolyte spot two years ago for health reasons; just wasn't able to commit to the time and do all the kinds of stuff I'd done before. So I am now just Brynne and Ailana was her mom 'cause ... well, just 'cause she was.
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Squirlly - Squirlly came about from an innocent remark I over heard while I was in the Navy. I was a DP (Data Processing Tech) and stuck in the "Bat Cave" we called it. It was a fairly small room in the interior of the building with NO WINDOWS and the AC was set at about 60 deg. to keep the computers cool enough. Well I am not the kind of person that can sit for a long time in front of a computer without a short break every now and then. About every 45 min or so I had sat there long enough so I would get up from my chair, either walk down the hall to get a soda, go the head (Restroom) or some times I would just get up and take 2 laps around the computer room then sit back down and go back to work. One time when I was just doing the laps as I sat back down over my shoulder I heard my Lead Petty Officer say "He looks like a caged squirrel" and it stuck. From that point on every time I got up to do my laps everyone would say hey Squirrel could to go down to the Coffee Mess for me and get me a cup of coffee?, or Squirrelly attack again? After I got out of the Navy I started training to be a professional clown and my first joke as a clown was "My 2 Years in the Navy was perfect training for this job" and when I started searching for a name I chose Squirrelly because Squirrly is not a real name, once I "Mis-Spelled" it, it became a unique name, uniquely me!
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Superfreak - Way back in 1999 I first joined Dreamscape as Myst. The proper spelling, Mist, was taken and I wanted a name that was mysterious, just like the nature of a mist. I could also type it really quick. I left world in 2001.
Recently, in March of 2006 I came back to Dreamscape (I think it gets in the blood) and the name Myst was taken! My name! I did the "ignore avatar" function to prove to myself that it wasn't truly taken, but it was, so I waited for a few days to see if the name would change for any reason. After a few days I realized that it wasn't going to change and I didn't want to alter the spelling, so I thought I would just change my name altogether. Superfreak came to mind because it was my email for a few years. Also because when I first thought of the name Superfreak as a handle, I couldn't think of anything and then suddenly it popped into my head from the song by Rick James. No, the song doesn't describe me in any way.
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Xie - When I first joined DS, I sat and stared at the computer for a good long while trying to think of a catchy name. My husband at the time noted that I was going to be exploring DS and suggested I come up with a name based on that... and so Exploress came to be, but I spelled it X-Ploress just to be different. Shortly after joining, I became very good friends with Sinigord who used to greet me with "Xie-poo!!" on a daily basis. Others picked up on this and started doing the same or just shortening my name to Xie when they would speak to me and so eventually Xie just stuck. My DS name has become such a part of me, that in rw if I'm called Xie or X (yes some still had to shorten it even more!!), I'll answer without hesitation.
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Ny - When I first came to Kymer I picked the name Nybor, my ratava's name backwards. I bolted through the doors with a medium build body. Later I come to find out the muscular body, also who wants hips in a cartoon world, could fly! So I wanted to change bodies, which at the time was 1000 tokens. I couldn't afford that as a newbie BUT I discovered I had an alt. Did the alt thing, went slow through the Argo section saw and read the body changer it did it, the name Nybor was taken (didn't know the change 3 times trick) and walla.. I'm Nyb*r with a fancy * for the O. In my head it's a flower (grins). It was shortened to Ny cause everyone was too lazy to type three extra letters. OH and it's pronounce Ny as in pie. not knee cause well that's a body part. OH and T (Trashka) can be elongated to Teeesie Weeesie.. she loves that.

(Editors note: Teeesie Weeesie! Gotta love the Teeesie Weeesie <g> -Doppel)
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Town Crier Thomas & Carl, His Cat - "Oyez, oyez, oyez," What sayith thee? Are thee daft? I bee but Thomas the town Crier! As far as it is known to me this beith my name? Carl is thee one ye seek he had nary a name until the kind people of this fair burg voted and bestowed upon him this fine name of Carl. As for me I be well pleased with my name but I knowith not from where it hails. "Oyez, oyez, oyez"
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The End for now!

[Doppelganger]

Thinking all that was from 2005? Maybe 2006?